A Flat Trading Day in Making
The last trading session saw key benchmark indices snapping their six-day winning streak. The bears found some space to comeback among the rampaging bulls; however, their success seems to be limited in scope. The early indications from SGX Nifty suggest the index to open flat to positive, as it is trading at 11,618.50 levels. Today, we will see a host of high-profile companies, including Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Holding, Biocon, HCL Tech, Havells India, HDFC Life Insurance, Hero Motocorp, JSW Steel, NIIT Tech, and L&T, unfolding their July-September earnings.
On the Asian side, stocks were trading in red on Wednesday, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surfacing as the worst performer so far, trading with a loss of 0.71 per cent. China’s Shanghai Composite is down by 0.20 per cent and the Japan’s Nikkei 225 has dropped 0.04 per cent.
Back home, after rising for six days on a trot, the markets were seen wearing out on Tuesday courtesy the IT giant, Infosys, which sank as much as 16 per cent, putting tremendous pressure on bourses. However, the banking sector outperformed and helped indices to keep its losses restrictive. By the end of the session, NSE Nifty shed 0.63 per cent and BSE Sensex lost 0.85 per cent. The market breadth witnessed an improvement, with the advance-decline ratio tilted towards advancers. The broader market indices, the Nifty mid cap and small cap, advanced 0.08 and 1.01 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, Nifty IT plunged as much as 4.68 per cent and ended as top loser while Nifty Pharma and Bank Nifty were the top gainers.
On the global front, stocks took a breather yesterday. In the US, benchmarks closed in the negative, as selling in the latter part of the session dragged indices lower amid uncertainty over the timeline to execute Brexit deal weighed of investors sentiment. The worst hit was the Nasdaq, which lost 0.7 per cent while the S&P 500 dipped 0.40 and the Dow shed 0.20 per cent. Meanwhile, European stocks ended the session with modest gains, as the focus was on quarterly numbers.